Four friends who spent time together during a BC vacation last summer ended up in a legal fight because one member of the group did not pay her share of expenses.
In a publicly posted decision, one member argued that one of their friends was the only group member who has yet to pay her back for some group expenses she covered.
The complainant claimed $365.86 from her friend, while she claimed the amount wasn’t accurate.
The group of four travelled within BC between August 9 and August 14 in the summer of 2023. It included the complainant’s boyfriend, JB, and the friend’s boyfriend, CW. The tribunal decision states that it’s undisputed that [the complainant] covered most of the shared expenses on her credit card to facilitate “post-trip division” of costs.
A week or so after the trip, she texted the group a breakdown of the costs, including groceries, ferries, accommodations, and group activities. After some discussion, the breakdown for each person amounted to $365.86. The group also had to pay CW for fuel, with each person owing $169.18.
The friend argued that there was no formal agreement about costs, but the tribunal said, based on texts, that the group had a deal.
“I put significant weight on the fact that [the friend]did not object to the amount [the complaint] said each person owed her at the time the parties calculated trip expenses,” the tribunal decision reads.
There’s even a text from the friend that reads, “I’ll etransfer you if you give me a response to the nasty message you sent me.”
There are no further details about the “nasty text.”
The friend argued that she provided food and alcohol from her home to share with everyone, but she never quantified the value of the items she shared. Other texts suggest that others also provided food and alcohol to share and that no one else, besides the friend, expected reimbursement.
After the tribunal sorted through the evidence, it found that the friend owed the complainant $382.49 for the debt plus pre-judgement interest.
Has a summer vacation with friends ever ended this way for you, whether it was in BC or not?
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Editor’s note: A previous version of this piece contained names that have since been removed due to privacy reasons.
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